North by Northeast clinic moving to Garlington Center

North by Northeast Community Health Center, a low-cost Portland health clinic facing eviction from its small building, has found a new larger space in Northeast Portland, medical director Dr. Jill Ginsberg said.

The clinic, which serves hundreds people with little or no health insurance, opened in 2006 in a small building on North Williams Ave. Last year, as the bad economy increased demand for the clinic's services, the property owner decided to sell the building and told the clinic they needed to move.

The clinic will move in June to the Garlington Center at 3034 NE MLK. That building housed a clinic for Cascadia Behavioral Healthcare until it was badly burned by a fire in October, 2008. It is now being rebuilt.

North by Northeast is getting 1,900 square feet in the new Garlington Center, about four times the space it now has, Ginsberg said. Plans call for four exam rooms, as well as a nurse's station, lobby, offices and staff break room.

The expansion also raises the clinic's costs. "So we're definitely always looking for support from the community," Ginsberg said.